In the 1980s, Filipino women started to come to Japan. Some of them come as singers and dancers with proper visas, but others come through human trafficking handled by organized gang groups. In many cases, women in the latter group face serious human rights violations such as confinement, violence, and forced prostitution. When it started, the majority of the women was from the Philippines. Started in the mid-80s, women from Thailand started to join. Currently, every year, over 100,000 women, mostly Filipinos and Thais, are sexually exploited in the sex industry all over Japan.
The women from Thailand are in more vulnerable position than the women from the Philippines. Some of the reasons are: 1) unlike the Filipinos who have legitimate entertainer's visas, most of the Thai women come with tourist visa and therefore they are illegal workers, 2) most of Thai women are from rural area with little English capability where as most women from the Philippine can speak English as it is widely spoken in their home country, and 3) Thais being Buddhist and cannot ask for help at Catholic churches.
Although the women's intent is to earn money abroad, the are more likely to be treated just as commodity by human trafficking syndicate often involving organized gang groups. A typical scenario of trafficking women from Thailand is as follows: first, the brokers in Thailand recruit women saying sweet words as "you can make a lot of money if you work in a factory or department store in Japan." The recruiters "export" women for 1,500,000 yen to 2,000,000 yen. The Japanese dealers buy the women for that price and "whole sell" them to sex industry in Japan for the doubled price. Owners of bars "buy" women for about 3,500,000 yen to 4,000,000 yen and tell the women that they are indebted for that sum. In order to repay this debt, women are forced into prostitution.
To prevent women from escaping, they are put under close surveillance of organized syndicates who often are affiliated with gang groups. They are confined to an apartment or a bar and force to take numerous "customers" day in and day out. If they protest or try to escape, they are inflicted violence or rape as a punishment. Recently, the number of women hospitalized or sent home due to their mental disorder associated to forced drug use is increasing. When they get sick or being injured, Japanese government refuse to provide medical care or welfare benefit. Some kill themselves in desperation, and other are being murdered in process. Some of such incidents are reported in newspaper and known through the information from embassies. However, they are only the tip of iceberg. In same cases the body of deceased can not be claimed because they were sent to Japan with fake passports.
In June 1990, a 20-year-old Filipino women was beaten to death at an apartment in Nakano, Tokyo by a gang member. At the funeral, which happened to take place at the same time as the royal wedding of Princes Kiko, a young woman flung herself down on the simple coffin decorated only with a cross and a little bouquet of flowers. This young women who rushed from Manila was the mother of the dead lady. She was reunited with her daughter who left the country three years ago to support her family at the age of seventeen in this unexpected manner. On the urn, the false name and the age, 25, was written according to the fake passport she entered the country with. Even after her death, her true identity was deprived!
In September 1992, a Taiwanese women, named Sachiko, was stabbed to death in Shimodate, Ibaraki. Three Thai women including "Akina" who worked for Sachiko were arrested for burglary and murder. The three women killed their abusive boss believing that there was no alternative in order to flee from unbearable mistreatment. On of the three women, Gun, learned Japanese at the detention center and have written letters to her lawyer and supporters frequently.
"I am a human being, no a commodity. It was only after I arrived Japan, I realized that I was sold. Everyday, I was forced have sex with men. I was deprived of freedom by Sachiko and not allowed to go out. I was not born to be confined. I was threatened that I would be killed if I tried to escape. I wanted to be free from her for my own safely and for my parents. My parents are sick. Their house was mortgaged. They wrote me that they need money. It feels as if my life is floating in a big ocean. Please let my like back to the shore."
In 1994, the prosecutors recommended a life-time imprisonment for there three women. In May, they were sentenced for ten-year imprisonment. The victims of the sexual exploitation were punished severely, but the instigator of the real crime behind Sachiko, the bar owner, was free from any kind of prosecution.
These cases illustrate how women from Asia are mistreated by trafficking dealers and being subjected to Japanese men's sexual desire. The women are mentally and physically exploited to the limit, and in worst cases, their lives are deprived. On the other hand the trafficking in women is such a lucrative business as it is reported that the agents caught with the violation of Prostitution Prevention Law was making 1 million yen per year. The global trafficking in women is a modern form of slavery. The victims of the trafficking are the victims of two major human right violation, namely sexual violence and economic exploitation.
In Japan, the sex industry is expanding, but the number of young Japanese women willing to work in the industry in short. The Asia women are brought to Japan to fulfill this gap. They are cheap, plenty, and profitable. Some brokers make millions of yens every year using a few women as prostitutes.
The underlying reason that let the sex industry in Japan flourish is the general tolerance to prostitution rooted in licensed prostitution system in feudal era. Furthermore, today's corporate culture has promoted the commercialization of sex, and today's "corporate warriors" ask for "contemporary comfort women." Thus the increase of serious crime against women's mind and body is caused by the intertwined factors of sexual discrimination in traditional patriarchal culture and the poverty.
The economic disparity between Japan and other Asian countries play a role from the "supplier" countries. With Yen being strong, the average wage in Japan is 10 to 20 times higher in Japan than in other Asian countries. With this difference Asian people are drawn to Japan. For instance, the government of the Philippines promote the exportation of labor to earn foreign currency in its effort to catch up with economic development and to ease unemployment. It is so much so that the Philippines is sometimes called a nation living on migrant workers. The government has a policy of sending women as entertainers to Japan as Japan does not accept blue-color workers from abroad. As a result, several tens of thousand young Filipino women come to Japan; many of them are forced into prostitution.
One of the causes of the explosive increase in international trafficking in women and prostitution is the problematic economic development in Asian countries. Unlike the Philippines, economic development in Thailand has been remarkable with a double-digit increase in GNP since the latter half of 1980s. The capital city of Thailand, Bangkok, is lively, a veritable symbol of prosperity. On the other hand, rural areas have fallen behind in terms of economic development, or rather, been victimized. Forest have been destroyed. Farmers are indebted and suffer from poverty. Economic development in Thailand has benefited only the rich in Bangkok, and those in the developed countries who use them. As a result, the gap between cities and rural areas, or the gap between the rich and the poor, has widened. Poverty in rural areas is a result of unfair economic development of Thailand.
The rapid economic growth has led to consumerism and mammonism. With the penetration of consumer goods into rural areas, people are thrust into the cash economy. Unfortunately for the people in the country side, only commodity they can offer in exchange for desired cash is their daughters. Thus, the trafficking in women accelerates.
Economic development among Asian nations is uneven. In contrast to the remarkable economic growth in Newly Industrializing Economies (NIEs) and other countries that follow, like Thailand, the economic situation in the least developed countries, several of which are in South Asia, is still doomed. For instance, Nepal is one of the poorest countries in terms of per capita GNP. Nevertheless, the surge of development has started to penetrate its economy; agriculture has been destroyed and cash has become indispensable for purchasing food. Traffickers sneak into underprivileged areas with their target being young women. In Nepal, like in Thailand, destructive economic development make women more vulnerable to violence against women.
As it is sometimes called "development dictatorship," the Asia's economic growth has been often achieved with severe repression of people who demanded a fairer and more independent economy. In other words, oppression of human rights was seen as necessary evil of economic development. Examples can be seen all over the region as the 38-year martial law in Taiwan, the long-term dictatorship in South Korea, and the absence of political freedom in Singapore to name a few. Military dictatorship and the practice of strong state power and oppressive administration are still rampant.
Japan is directly involved in above mentioned un-healthy economic development in Asia, that widens the gap between the rich and the poor, abuses human rights, and degrade natural environment. In Thailand, for example, started in the latter half of the 1980s, Japan's direct investment has been poured in the country so much that more than 1,000 Japanese companies has been established. A huge amount of Official Development Assistance (ODA) followed to support the activities of Japanese companies. It is so much so that the Thai people lament that their forests, fields, and shores have been sold to Japan. For this reason, when analyzing the trafficking in women from Thailand, it is necessary to look into the distorted economic relationship between Japan and Thailand.
Further, Japanese women created another new term "sei-shinryaku (sex invasion)" with an realization that sex tour is not only discrimination against women but a North-South problems as men of militarily and economically powerful countries exploit the women of less powerful countries. Japan has a history of military invasion in Asia, and now invades the same area economically. Japanese women's movement against sex tour is based on their belief that the change in Japan's course of action is necessary path in building solidarity with Asian women who are the victims of the sexual exploitation.
Nationwide networks, such as the Asian Workers Conference, were formed. They publish guidebooks, lobby in international organizations including the United Nations, and run publicity campaigns to raise public awareness.
International struggle against the trafficking in women is expanding with the recognition that it is the violence against women and is the violation of women's basic human rights.
The Alliance against Trafficking in Women (headquarters in New York), which was formed in late 1980s, does not believe that the current Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of Prostitution is sufficient to eradicate trafficking in women. It created a Draft Convention for Abolishing Sexual Exploitation in cooperation with women all over the world. The draft was brought up in the UN for adoption.
At the UN World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in June, 1993, trafficking in women was incorporated in the Action Plan as one of the forms of violence against women which needs to be tackled in each country. At the UN Fourth World Conference on Women to be held in Beijing in autumn, 1995, it is expected that the trafficking in women be one of the major issues. In preparation for the Beijing Conference, the Asian Tribunal on Women's Human rights was held in Japan in March, 1994 co-sponsored by the Asian Women's Human rights Council (AWHRC; headquarters in Manila) and the Women's Human Rights Committee of Japan (WHRCJ). Currently, the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADAR; headquarters in Osaka) is conducting an international project against the trafficking of women with the participation of women from 10 countries. IMADAR is planing to present its results in a workshop in Beijing.
Yet further efforts to strengthen the movement in Japan and to expand international cooperation is vital in the fight against women trafficking that make profits on exploitation of women.